Jasper Watkins III

Jasper Watkins III is an elected official, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, and nuclear pharmacist who serves as District 3 Commissioner of Gwinnett County. His district includes Dacula, Grayson, Loganville, Snellville, and parts of Lawrenceville and the unincorporated areas surrounding those cities. Watkins was sworn in on December 23, 2020, becoming the first African American and person of color to represent District 3 on the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners.

Education and early career Watkins earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in 1982. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., an intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University.

After graduating, Watkins worked for about a year as a Non-commissioner Officer in Charge of Inpatient Pharmacy Services for the Walson Army Hospital at Fort Dix in New Jersey. In 1986, he became Supervisor of Satellite Pharmacies at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

As he advanced further in his early career, he became Chief of Pharmacy Services at the Andrew Rader U.S. Army Health Clinic and the Pentagon U.S. Army Health Clinic where he served for two years starting in 1988. From 1992 to 1996, he moved back to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to become Chief of Nuclear Pharmacy in the Department of Radiology.

To continue his early career, Watkins became Director of Operations and Support Directorate and Pharmacy Consultant for the U.S. Army Medical Material Agency at Fort Detrick in Maryland, until 1999, when he moved abroad to serve as Chief of the Department of Pharmacy at the 121st General Hospital in Yongsan, Korea.

Watkins decided to continue his education by pursuing a post-graduate degree, earning a Master of Science in Health Services Administration from Central Michigan University in 2001.

Watkins served from 2000 to 2002 as Assignment Officer and Career Manager for the U.S. Total Army Personnel Command in Virginia. After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon, he provided oversight in the placement of wounded personnel.

Campaign and Election Watkins began his career in government when he first ran for Gwinnett District commissioner in 2016. He lost against former District 3 Commissioner Tommy Hunter, receiving 49% of the vote.

In 2020, Watkins decided to run again for Commissioner of District 3. His 2020 campaign focused on what he called the “Three ‘T’ Platform – “transportation, transformation, and transparency”.

Watkins is quoted stating, “I am committed to exploring service enhancements that expand transit accessibility, to providing economic incentives that attract high growth industries; to benchmarking successful inclusionary zoning models, and to exploring water conservation improvements. Finally, I am committed to harnessing new technologies to make more information public in ways that enable people to both understand what their government does and to influence those decisions”.

His 2020 campaign proved successful. He won against Republican Ben Archer with nearly 59 percent of the vote.